The Heart of Christianity : Rediscovering a Life of Faith

World-renowned Jesus scholar Marcus J. Borg shows how we can live passionately as Christians in today's world by practicing the vital elements of Christian faith. For the millions of people who have turned away from many traditional beliefs about God, Jesus, and the Bible, but still long for a relevant, nourishing faith, Borg shows why the Christian life can remain a transforming relationship with God. Emphasizing the critical role of daily practice in living the Christian life, he explores how prayer, worship, Sabbath, pilgrimage, and more can be experienced as authentically life-giving practices.

Jesus: The Life, Teachings, and Relevance of a Religious Revolutionary

Come to know Jesus as you have never known him before: as a revolutionary prophet with an exciting new moral vision. Top biblical scholar Marcus J. Borg, after a lifetime of work and study, presents a historically accurate Jesus unlike any we have previously seen. This Christ is a charismatic sage and healer who courageously and surprisingly confronts the societal crises of his day, a man living in the power of the spirit and dedicated to radical social change.

The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation

The Trinity is supposed to be the central doctrine grounding Christianity, yet we're often told that we shouldn't attempt to understand it because it's a mystery. But what if we breached that mystery? How might it transform our relationship with God?

The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Birth

In The First Christmas, two of today's top Jesus scholars, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, join forces to show how history has biased our reading of the nativity story as it appears in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. Borg and Crossan help us to see this well-known narrative afresh by answering the question, "What do these stories mean?" in the context of both the first century and the 21st century. They successfully show that the Christmas story, read in its original context, is far richer and more challenging than people imagine.

New Seeds of Contemplation

New Seeds of Comtemplation is one of Thomas Merton's most widely read and best loved books. Christians and non-Christians alike have joined in praising it as a notable successor in the meditative tradition of St. John of the Cross, the Cloud of Unknowing, and the medieval mystics, while others have compared Merton's reflections to those of Thoreau.

Why Be Catholic?

Addresses one of the most vital questions for new and lifelong Catholics. Rohr draws on his own prayer, study and preaching experiences throughout the world to ask "What is good about being Catholic?" This series invites listeners to explore the breadth and depth of their faith. "Most Catholics are not Catholic/catholic enough," says Rohr. Addresses both the shortcomings and strengths of the Catholic Christian tradition.

Jesus: A Pilgrimage

A gifted storyteller and spiritual director, Father James Martin, SJ, invites readers to experience the stories of the Gospels in a completely new, vivid, and exciting way to gain a deeper understanding of Jesus. Moving sequentially through the Gospels, considering not only familiar passages but also the "hidden life" of Jesus, the book offers a bold retelling of the life of Christ, faithful to the Christian tradition, while meditating on parts of the narrative that have often escaped notice.

Meister Eckhart's Living Wisdom: Indestructible Joy and the Path of Letting Go

The 13th-century mystic Meister Eckhart was the most brilliant Christian scholar of his day, but he was also legendary for the way that he opened listeners to the direct experience of God during his public talks. Today, his written wisdom remains alive as ever, ready to illuminate us. With Meister Eckhart's Living Wisdom, James Finley, one of today's best-known teachers of the Christian contemplative tradition, invites us into Eckhart's insights in the same way that this luminary teacher delighted in sharing them.

The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of Saint Francis

We often think of saints as rare individuals whose gifts far exceed our own, and St. Francis is no exception. But for Fr. Richard Rohr, a prolific author and renowned speaker, the life and teachings of this beloved figure offer an authentic spirituality we can all embody.

The Cost of Discipleship

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us today? Drawing on the Sermon on the Mount, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answers these timeless questions by providing a seminal reading of the dichotomy between "cheap grace" and "costly grace."

Thomas Merton’s Path to the Palace of Nowhere

First presented at a series of popular retreats, this full audio program takes a participatory approach to Merton's most useful teachings, helping us to discover our true self...to disappear into God; to be submerged into his peace; to be lost in the secret of his face, as Merton said, through daily practices including contemplation, prayer, and faith. In the end we find ourselves in what the Taoist sage Chuang Tzu called the Palace of Nowhere, where all the many things are one.

The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion

In The Day the Revolution Began, N. T. Wright once again challenges commonly held Christian beliefs, as he did in Surprised by Hope. Demonstrating the rigorous intellect and breathtaking knowledge that have long defined his work, Wright argues that Jesus' death on the cross was not only to absolve us of our sins, it was actually the beginning of a revolution commissioning the Christian faithful to a new vocation - a royal priesthood responsible for restoring and reconciling all of God's creation.

Publisher's Summary

Modern Christians are steeped in a language so distorted that it has become a stumbling block to the religion, says internationally renowned Bible scholar Marcus J. Borg. Borg argues that Christianity's important words, and the sacred texts and stories in which those words are embedded, have been narrowed by a modern framework for the faith that emphasizes sin, forgiveness, Jesus dying for our sins, and the afterlife. Here, Borg employs the "historical-metaphorical" method for understanding Christian language that can restore for us these words of power and transformation. For example:

Redemption: now narrowly understood as Jesus saving us from sins so we can go to heaven, but in the Bible it refers to being set free from slavery.

Savior: now refers to Jesus as the one who saves us from our sins, but in the Bible it has a rich and wonderful variety of meanings having nothing to do with the afterlife.

Sacrifice: now refers to Jesus's death on the cross as payment for our sins, but in the Bible it is never about substitutionary payment for sin.

In Speaking Christian, Borg delivers a language for 21st-century Christians that grounds the faith in its deep and rich original roots and allows it once again to transform our lives.

This book can help those caught in life's paradox to finally understand God's undying love for His/Her creation. A refreshing look at what the Bible is trying to teach us. How can we as Christians embody a transformed way of living. Imagine the Justice, Peace and transformation if we could only understand these concepts.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Amazon Customer

ROCK HILL, SC, United States

21/10/12

Overall

Performance

Story

"Say That Again With Different Words"

Often I have wondered,"How did we get here from there?". We make the "Good News" very complicated and fear based, needing to escape the "fires of Hell". It doesn't seem that our message to a suffering world is the same as Jesus'. My silent questions were openly discussed in this book and answered even with the scripture passages for explanation. Over the recent years I have learned the filter of belief we hold in our own minds influence what we think a phrase means. This book identifies the filters and gently challenges the listener to be willing to listen without the old filter. I have listened to this book four times in the past week, removing more of the filter each time and going back to scripture with an open mind and a prayerful heart. I highly recommend listening to this book. I hoped I could find a way of telling others from a different culture about my faith and found many of my own questions answered along the way.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Bart Visscher

16/01/18

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great book, extremely well read by the narrator "

Words are important, the author shows where many of the “Christian” words we use have been changed from their biblical roots.

Fascinating

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Curt Curtis

04/06/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"My favorite book from my favorite author. "

I have now read this book and listened to it four or five times in the last three years. I Learn something each time. I just listened to it again, it seems especially appropriate in mid 2017

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Michael

SALT LAKE CITY, UT, United States

05/12/11

Overall

Performance

Story

"Great Book, OK Presentation"

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

A good book that would be a good read for someone already familiar with the Christian story who is struggling with questions of Christianity's relevancy in the 21st century.

What did you like best about this story?

I love the fresh take on the meaning of the language of faith and the ways in which Borg roots his understanding in the cultural and linguistic context of the Bible.

Have you listened to any of John Pruden’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Haven't heard John Pruden before, but felt that his reading did not always capture the wry wit of Marcus Borg. I have heard Borg speak and sometimes I imagined passages having a different tone or nuance than the one that Pruden put on it.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

barry thomas

05/01/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Atheist"

This book should not be included with Christian books as it is not even close. This is a clueless individual who is confounded by the Word and is lacking any Spiritual guidance. DO NOT buy this book for ANY resemblance of Christ. He is what the Bible refers to as a heretic and is Spiritually void and as so try's to dispel the Word because he does not understand . To those who believe the Spirit is life but to those who do not it is foolishness. Obviously anyone who denies the resurrection and salvation is sadly foolish and ignorant.

0 of 11 people found this review helpful

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